Chapter 9: The Gathering of Decisions

Duskspirit sat beside his former mentor Sanddust. The island was bathed in a blanket of moonlight. Bramblestar just finished speaking for Thunderclan. Mistystar took to the center branch and yowled, "Shadowclan we have reason to believe that Sparrowpaw is with you, he has been missing for three nights now and we have reason to believe that he is on your territory!" 'How dare Mistystar accuse Shadowclan of something they have no proof of. This is like Horserwings case all over again. Mistaystar accused Windclan of sending a patrol onto their land when it was only one cat!' Duskspirit fumed as Tigerstar annoyingly reponsed, "He was injured and his injuries need time to heal, we did not tell you this as you would just accuse us of cat napping him," Duskspirit noticed there was something in Tigerstar's posure and amber eyes that told him he wasn't telling the truth about Sparrowpaw's supposed disappearance.

He noticed something move in the bushes close to where the Shadowclan cats were sitting. It looked brown but he couldn't tell in the dim moonlight. His ears pricked back to hear Mistystar in the middle of mewing, "Sparrowpaw come out and tell us what really happened?" Duskspirit tilted his head in confusion. 'Sparrowpaw probably isn't here and did Mistystar just demand that Sparrowpaw come out and tell us what really happened? Or am I missing something?' Tigerstar replied, "He's in camp healing," Tigerstar's deputy Coverfoot yowled, "That isn't true and you know it!" Suddenly Mistystar yowled in rage, "What do you mean Cloverfoot! That Sparrowpaw is an apprentice of Shadowclan and that he won't be coming back to Riverclan his home!" "That's right, Mistystar," replied Sparrowpaw who emerged from the bushes. "What do you mean Sparrowpaw! Riverclan is your home! It's where you belong!" yowled an orange/russet she-cat with a fluffy tail. "No, I decide where home is, not the clans and certainly not Riverclan," mewed Sparrowpaw to the crowd of cats. Serval gasps of shock came from the assembled cats.

Crowfeather mewed, "True, Graystripe had to go to Riverclan with his kits to find out where he belonged, Stormfur decided that his home is in the mountains, me and Leafpool had to leave our clans to find out that we belonged in our clans, Twigbranch had to live in Skyclan before figuring out that she belonged in Thunderclan, and Dovewing had to figure out that she belonged in Shadowclan with Tigerstar," Some cats in the crowd nodded their heads at Crowfeather's statement, while others turned their heads away in disgust.

Duskspirit saw Mistystar explode into a rage. "That's in the past! We all need to stay with our home clans and not just switch everytime we feel left out! Or that we don't belong in our clans! The warrior code says that boundaries are important, yet we keep breaking those boundaries because of love or loneliness! If this continues the clans will dissolve into one and all our traditions that are unique to us will be lost!" Harestar, Leafstar and Bramblestar mewed agreement to Mistystar's argument. Tigerstar mewed in retaliation, "Then how will a cat find themselves? Will they be forced into staying to the ideals of their clan? What if one Skyclan cat likes the water but they pretend that they don't in order to keep the status quo among Skyclan? What happens when one cat feels alone and finds happiness in a clan cat that isn't of their clan? Will they be forced not to be happy?"

Duskspirit saw that some cats were understanding and agreeing with Tigerstar's argument. Leafstar spoke up, "Tigerstar I understand that you know what it's like to experience that type of thing, but the warrior code demands that every clanmate gives absolute loyalty to their birthclan, no matter what," Tigerstar scoffed, "Then the warrior code demand's that cats sacrifice their happiness for what Starclan wants and gives no choice but to make them repress their feelings for the sake of Starclan," Every leader and deputy were stunned by Tigerstar's words. 'I haven't really thought about that. I know I've heard stories about breaking the warrior code before, but I never thought about what those cats were thinking and feeling' thought Duskspirit as several cats around him began to argue with each other about what was right and what was wrong. Duskspirit looked at Sanddust who had gotten into an argument with a golden pelted she-cat. The she-cat mewed to Sanddust, "The warrior code has honor in some of its laws and some of them don't. Where's the honor in not letting a cat think, feel and decide for herself. If some cat is interested in another clan they should be able to decide at their apprenticeship where they want to give their loyalty to. That way they learn to respect another clan instead of wanting to wipe them out, like some cat's in our history almost succeeded in doing!"

Then the she-cat ran away from Sanddust, without letting him give her a piece of his mind on the matter. Sanddust growled, "Duskspirit go back to Windclan territory with the apprentices, the warriors can handle this without hot headed warriors and apprentices making the situation worse," "No! I am not going, this involves the apprentices too. It doesn't matter if they are hot headed and stubborn, we can still give our opinion on the matter!" mewed Duskspirit trying not to raise his voice at Sanddust. "Hot headed as always Duskspirit," muttered Sanddust as Bramblestar yowled, "Silence!" Every cat stopped bickering and turned their bodies to the great oak. "I know this must be hard, we have followed the warrior code generation after generation. Yet we have always broken one the laws in the code at one point in time. We will need to talk about this with our clans and decide if we need to revise the warrior code in any way. Then at the next full moon gathering we will discuss the changes we want to implement and which laws should stay. With Starclan's blessing of course. The medicine cats will meet with them at half moon, and they will find out what Starclan wants. The gathering is dismissed," yowled Bramblestar to the assembled cats. Duskspirit heard pawsteps behind him. He turned around to see that Thrushheart had padded up to him. "I hope that this conflict does not bring war to our clans, but instead unties them," Duskspirit stared at Thrushheart with awe, 'I can't believe what I'm hearing, Thrushheart the prankster is saying something that actually has weight to it.' Duskspirit mewed, "I hope that as well, Thrusheart,"

Thrushheart then went to his clan to wait in line for crossing the tree bridge. Duskspirit pondered, 'I wonder what this means for the future of the clans, is Sparrowpaw's brief disappearance Starclans doing? But why? Or is it something Starclan wanted to prevent, but it is out of their control? Could it be that Starclan has no actual control over the way cat's behave?' Duskspirit was so lost in thought that he didn't notice that the clearing was empty of all the assembled cats. A creaking noise brought him out of his train of thought and he noticed that he is the only cat left on the island. Duskspirit sighed and walked out onto the tree bridge. His paws kept slipping on the wet bark. Snow kept drizzling on his fur until he made it to the warriors den and curled up in his nest. He heard rustling and he opened his eyes to find Moleclaw's green eyes staring at him. "Moleclaw what do you want?" "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I heard some cat's talking about what happened at the gathering, so I wanted to make sure you weren't hurt," mewed Moleclaw. Duskspirit mewed, "The clans just argued with each other until Bramblestar proposed an idea. And every cat agreed to it. Also Sparrowpaw is now in Shadowclan. It's funny though, Bramblestar was the only clan leader to speak of clan news and Shadowclan only revealed that Sparrowpaw is with them. So the gathering was basically a big argument at the end till the cats all agreed on Bramblestar's idea," Moleclaw's green eyes widened with shock and confusion. "Was Beaverpaw there? I know how much she hates peace talks when no cat seems to listen to the cats trying to spread peace," "No she wasn't there, Moleclaw, but her friend Stripepaw was there, she'll certainly tell Beaverpaw what happened. Hopefully she won't act on her anger, like she did one moon ago when you and I were made warriors before her. She acted all high and mighty like she deserved to be made a warrior early. Thankfully you and Stripepaw talked some sense into that she-cat," Moleclaw mewed, "Well let's hope. Goodnight Duskspirit," "Night Moleclaw," mewed Duskspirit. He let his thoughts drift away into the back of his mind and let the blackness drift him to sleep.

Sunlight pierced through the den making his eyes flutter open. Duskspirit woke up drowsily. He walked out the den and winced when the bright sunlight hit his eyes. He sees that Harestar is making his way to tall rock. He stretched out his body and let the memories of the gathering hit him like a gentle wave of water. "Every cat gather around the highrock for a clan gathering!" Duskspirit padded up near the tall rock and sat down on the snowy ground. Moleclaw joined him as well as Swiftwind and Sanddust. The rest of the clan, even the kits, Adderkit, Daisykit, Burrkit, and Yarrowkit sat outside of the nursery with their parent's Lionmane and Mudpelt. Harestar yowled, "At the gathering last night, we discovered that some parts of the warrior code aren't good for a cat's mental well being, can every cat think of what we could change to make cats feel more comfortable living clan life," Duskspirit yowled, "We could have apprentice's decide which clan they want to be in, and for the apprentices that decide to stay in their birth clan, before they're made warriors could travel to the different clans and learn more about them so we could respect each clan a little more and they should stay in one clan for two days like I kinda did when I was kept at Riverclans camp, for a keeping promise sort of thing," Harestar mewed, "Okay that could work, what about different clan relationships?" Nightcloud mewed, "We could have the same rule except that if a cat loves a cat from another clan that one of them could decide to stay in which clan to stay in or they just stay friends from another clan," Harestar nodded. "What about the medicine cat code?" Crowfeather mewed, "I think that medicine cats should be able to have kits, but only if they have an apprentice that can take care of the clan while she-cat medicine cats give birth or the clan can look after them. Cause every cat deserves to know the joy of having kits with a mate. Besides there probably have been countless medicine cat she-cat's or toms that have had kits behind their clans back,"

Every cat nodded in agreement. Swiftwind muttered under her breath loud enough for Sanddust, Moleclaw and Duskspirit to hear, "That means that forbidden love across the border have happened multiple times and we've just never known it, which means the clans have more mixed blood than we realize," Duskspirit nodded his head in agreement to Swiftind's statement, Moleclaw and Sanddust did the same. Duskspirit noticed some cats grumbling about these supposed changes. Duskspirit understood, 'The clans have had the warrior code that is the present one right now for generations, change will be hard for every cat, especially since this change involves something that has shaped our history,' Harestar mewed to the crowd, "If anyone else has any suggestions to the changing of the warrior come to me and I will scratch them on a piece of bark so that I don't forget all of your suggestions. The clan meeting is adjourned," Harestar lept off tallrock and returned to his den.

Duskspirit padded to where Crowfeather was ording patrols. "Nightcloud, Hootowl, and Featherfern I want each of you to take out a hunting patrol, choose which cats should go with you. For border patrols I want Duskspirit, Moleclaw, Shrewtail and his apprentice Rabbitpaw to check out the Riverclan border, while Fireflame, Gorsebush, Birchtree, and Cloudyfur check the Thunderclan border," Duskspirit saw Shrewtail, a dark gray tom with mud brown eyes and a small tail, and his apprentice Rabbitpaw, a black and white tom with a stubby tail, with amber eyes. Moleclaw joined them a few seconds later. Moleclaw led them out of camp and onto the barren snowy land. They spotted a few white rabbits as they padded to Riverclan territory. Shrewtail mewed, "Rabbitpaw what do you know about Riverclan?" Rabbitpaw answered, "Riverclan tend to be plump because the river doesn't freeze. Also they can swim, which makes them dangerous when they fight near the lake and river. They are bred for swimming and water combat," Shrewtail gave an approving nod. Duskspirit added, "They also tend to be more open to certain ideas that the other clans aren't, like for intinstence I think Crookedstar knew that the kits Oakheart brought to Riverclan is his brothers and Bluestar's, and he chose to let them stay. I don't know what the reason is that he let two half clan kit's into Riverclan, but it did Riverclan good, seeing as they have Mistystar as their new leader," Moleclaw nodded in agreement.

They stopped close to the treeline of Riverclan territory, and began to look for scent markers. Shrewtail mewed, "You two go on ahead, I'll teach Rabbitpaw how to scent the markers here," Duskspirit mewed, "Okay, see you back at camp," Moleclaw scent marked a unique looking rock that had some moss on it. When they finished setting the other two markers, they heard Shrewtail loudly yell, "Run Rabbitpaw, go back to camp and tell them what we saw!" Duskspirit sprinted to where Shrewtail had yowled from without a second thought and saw Shrewtail standing over a dead cat. Duskspirit looked at the cat and saw that it was Harestar. Suddenly the body started getting up, only to have his legs fall out from underneath him. "Harestar!" mewed Moleclaw as she raced to his side and helped get up. Duskspirit went to Harestar's other side and let him lean on his body. Harestar mumbled, "Some cat's is unhappy at the warrior code changing. I saw through the dense bushes three cats that were talking about how they hate that the warrior code is changing. But I couldn't tell which clan they are from and who exactly they are. But now you three know, and you must not tell this to any cat, we can't let them know that us four know about their plan,"

Duskspirit, Moleclaw and Shrewtail all nodded their heads in agreement with their leader. Later, when they reached the camp entrance lot's of cats swarmed around them and asked, "Is Harestar okay? Who would do this to our leader? Who did it? Why did they do it?" As they kept asking questions, Harestar made it to the top of tallrock and mewed, "I was attacked by a fox, it took me by surprise and had me underneath it paws, luckily Shrewtail, Moleclaw and Duskspirit came to check the markers on the Riverclan border just in time and saved me from the fox," Then he lept off tallrock and padded into the medicine den to see Kestrelflight. Moleclaw, and Shrewtail went in with Harestar, while Duskspirit walked to the fresh kill pile and chose a shrew. He ate peacefully, he licked his lips then washed himself. Moleclaw padded up to him, "Didn't you want to know if Harestar is okay?"

Duskspirit replied, "Kestrelflight is good at healing, and besides, it's not like Kestrelflight to be in on the thing we heard about," Moleclaw hissed whispered, "Do you want to let those cats know that we know about their plan to do something," Duskspirit replied, "No" Then he padded away and went to see if Crowfeather had put him onto any more patrols. Crowfeather noticed him and mewed, "I want you, Shrewtail, and Moleclaw to take the rest of the day off, fighting that fox must've worn you guys out, I already told Moleclaw and Shrewtail," Duskspirit padded into the warriors den and curled up. It was close to the sun setting, so he didn't mind getting to go to sleep early. Then weariness overtook him and he fell asleep not noticing that Moleclaw crept beside him and started sleeping beside him.