Frostpaw had left Frostfern and drifted around to where the elders were exchanging news. Robinfeather was chatting in hushed tones to a ThunderClan elder. His eyes glancing back at Frostpaw, who was steadily heading for the two. Robinfeather suddenly stopped and turned towards Frostpaw.
"This is Graystorm," he said, as if to answer Frostpaw's unspoken question.
"And this is Heatherwhisker, she is from RiverClan," Graystorm finished.
"Hello, small one. What is your name?" Heatherwhisker asked.
"My name is Frostpaw, I'm one of ShadowClan's new apprentices," Frostpaw answered.
"I was just telling Graystorm about you new apprentices," meowed Robinfeather
"There seems to be a lot of apprentices this new-leaf. RiverClan also has some new apprentices. We are lucky to have them," added Heatherwhisker.
"Yes, I-" Graystorm's sentence was cut off by the sound of Dovestar calling the Gathering to order. The four Clan leaders jumped onto the stump.
Dovestar started, "First off, I have some very somber news. A half moon ago, Sootstar lost his last life to a collapsed badger set while on a patrol. By the time the other warriors on the patrol got him out, he had already joined the ranks of StarClan. I became Clan leader and received my nine lives from StarClan a few nights ago." The cats below mewed softly muttering in grief for the fallen leader. Dovestar raised her voice to a more cheerful tone as she continued. "However, I do have some more joyful news. ShadowClan has been privileged enough to welcome several apprentices within the last moon and the prey is running well."
The crowd was murmuring. Not only because of the surprise of Sootstar's death, but the fear of how many new opponents they would have to fight. Frostpaw couldn't help but be excited about she being accepted by the clans as a new apprentice.
"We now have Sparrowpaw, Runningpaw, Starpaw, Eclipsepaw, Tawnypaw, and Frostpaw," Dovestar continued, Frostpaw couldn't help but shivering at her new name. "And our medicine cat, Mossfur, has taken on an apprentice, Moonpaw," Dovestar concluded proudly. The gathered cats cheered the new apprentices' names.
Willowstar advanced, "All is well in WindClan, we have two new apprentices, Hawkpaw and Bubblepaw, and Ashleaf has taken on an apprentice as well, Snowpaw. We also have three new warriors, Whitespot, Swiftfoot, and Darkfur."
Willowstar stepped back for Stagstar to leap forward. His broad shoulders and brown pelt shone in the moonlight and his amber eyes glowed. "ThunderClan has been doing well, we have enough prey to go around and are getting stronger than ever. We now also have some new apprentices, Redpaw, Ravenpaw, and Skypaw," he announced.
Stagstar smiled proudly and sauntered back so that Birchstar could share his news as well. Frostpaw was surprised by the leader's shape; he was much more sleek than his clanmates. She guessed that it must be the fact that RiverClan was close to the river, making their coats thick and more sleek for swimming and catching fish.
Frostpaw looked at the RiverClan warriors sitting a few tail lengths behind her and wrinkled her nose. They reeked of fish! A tabby RiverClan tom turned his gaze around to Frostpaw and glared. "What is it?" he snarled. His sleek pelt shone in the moonlight with his Clanmates, unlike ShadowClan, whose rough, dark pelts were barely visible among the shadows of the island echoing off the sides.
"Riverclan is doing well as always we have plenty of food to go around due to the lake and rivers in our territory," Birchstar continued, "We have no new apprentices, but we do have three new kits." He smiled proudly. "Larchwhisker has given birth to my kits, Rosekit, Oakkit, and Leafkit."
The ThunderClan cats were smiling as Birchstar stepped back and Dovestar came forward once again. "Well, if that's all we should probably call this Gathering to a close," and with that Dovestar jumped down from the tree and began to pad towards the fallen tree with her Clanmates following behind.
All of a sudden a blood curdling yowl rang through the forest. Most of the cats turned toward the direction of the sound. Except Dovestar. She just stood there, eyes wide in fear, frozen in her tracks.
"What's going on?" Frostpaw mewed, unsure of what to do. Dovestar spun around, her pelt bristling in fury. "ThunderClan is attacking!" the gentle, gray she-cat yowled. "ShadowClan! Return the favor!" Dovestar leapt forward at a warrior. Frostpaw turned around to where Stagstar was appalled.
"These cats are not of my clan!" He yowled in the struggle of the clans and the attackers.
"We aren't, Stagstar?" A calico she-cat yowled.
Frostpaw sped out of the gathering place and carefully raced across the fallen tree. She ran as fast as her paws could take her back to the ShadowClan camp for reinforcements only to be stopped by the sound of trouble coming from ThunderClan. The attackers were trying to ambush ThunderClan! Frostpaw knew now that Stagstar was not telling everything at the gathering that was actually going on. Frostpaw seemed to leap into the ShadowClan camp howling in alarm.
"We were under an attack… ThunderClan is being ambushed at their camp… We need to help them!" Frostpaw paused to catch her breath. Swanfern stepped out of the crowd and up to Frostpaw. "Where's Dovestar?" Swanfern said.
"She's still at the gathering, we need to help them!" Frostpaw wailed.
Swanfern nodded her head calmly but she was sending off waves of fear scent "Adderfang, Rosepetal, chose your warriors. Adderfang, you go and help Dovestar. Rosepetal, to the ThunderClan camp. Use the noise to find it. Now go!" She padded over to Adderfang while he chose Foxstripe, Muzzleberry, Poisonfang, Sprucetail and his apprentice to help Dovestar.
"I am coming with you Adderfang. There are more cats to protect a the gathering."
Adderfang nodded his head and lead his patrol out of the camp to the gathering place.. Lead by Rosepetal, the patrol left the camp and headed to ThunderClan territory.
"Frostpaw!" Frostpaw whipped her head around to see Honeyflower stricken with worry. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"
"No, honestly, I am fine. I ran out of there to tell Swanfern as fast as I could."
"You must be tired, please, rest," her mother insisted.
Rest didn't seem like a bad idea to Frostpaw, but she knew that she would never be able to fall asleep with everything going on. It didn't matter when there was cats attacking ThunderClan. They needed to help them. Honeyflower started pushing Frostpaw towards the apprentices den. She curled up in her nest and eyes soon were lowering without any effort. Soon, Frostpaw was asleep. But it didn't last long.
She was awaken by the sound of the same blood curdling yowl that she heard at the gathering. Immediately, she dashed out of the den to see what was happening. Yellow eyes were lining the rim of the camp. Frostpaw yowled in alarm, but it was cut short when the calico she-cat leaped on top of her and pinned her to the ground. Where is everyone? Why aren't they fighting?
"We needn't alarm the whole clan, now will we?"
Frostpaw struggled under the weight of the aggressive she-cat. Her lips drawn back to a snarl, she did the first thing she could think of. Frostpaw sank her fangs into her opponent's forepaw holding her down. The furious she-cat backed away and howled away in pain. A rogue tabby tom leaped towards the calico she-cat, his eyes both furious and worried.
"Speckle! Are you alright?" He asked.
"I'm fine, Tiger," Speckle's gaze returned to Frostpaw, her amber eyes burning with fury "But this one will soon not be"
At that moment, Speckle pounced towards Frostpaw but this time she anticipated her attack. The white apprentice dashed out of the way and Speckle landed with a crash. She jumped on top of her and dug her claws in her back. Speckle tried to get her off but Frostpaw was too quick for the rogue. The ShadowClan warriors peeked out of their dens, their eyes wide as they witnessed one apprentice take down the invading cats. Tiger swiped Frostpaw off of Speckle. The other rogues leaped down and surrounded her. StarClan help me! At that moment Dovestar and her patrol stormed into the camp. Like a wave, the ShadowClan cats attacked the invaders. Then something occurred to her, if Dovestar is here, than are her littermates following her?
