Warning! If you do not review, Stormpaw will eat your brains and Sprucepelt will stuff nightshade up your nose!

Disclaimer: Warriors belongs to Erin Hunter, and if I did own it, Scourge would have had a daughter and she would have killed him.

Chapter 7

The day of the next gathering had arrived, bringing with it a clear sun hovering high above the cats heads. Snowpaw had been out hunting with Thistlepaw when Flamestar issued the familiar cry.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey meet beneath the Highledge for a clan meeting!" As Snowpaw headed to the center of the clearing, she met Stormpaw behind Gingerblaze.

"Cats of ThunderClan! As you know, the night of the Gathering is tonight. I intend to make it plain to Pebblestar that he will not be taking over any of our territory. Also, Tawnyflower has announced that Barkpaw has been granted his full medicine cat name. He is now Barkpelt."

"Barkpelt! Barkpelt!" yowled Sorrelheart, her other two kits joining in as Barkpelt blushed and bowed his head modestly. Bramblepelt looked at his son proudly.

"That is all. Go to your duties, and Snowpaw, can I see you in my den?" Flamestar leapt down from the Highledge and padded down toward his den. Snowpaw shot a mystified glance at Stormpaw before following him.

"Yes, Flamestar?" Snowpaw mewed, once she had entered the small space.

"Ah, Snowpaw. I think you have learned enough and are ready to come to the gathering tonight." Flamestar meowed, sinking onto his haunches.

"R-really?" Snowpaw stammered. She could not believe it.

"Yes. You and Stormpaw are both going. Also, Pinepelt insisted that Rainpaw should come, so he will also be attending." Flamestar licked his chest fur, and sighed.

"Thank you, Flamestar. There's also something I wanted to ask you." Snowpaw hesitated. "Who was Gingerblaze's mother?"'

Flamestar surveyed Snowpaw for a moment before meowing. "My mate was a she-cat named Squirrelfur. She was feisty, independent and hot headed." He sighed again. "Before I became leader, my warrior name was Flamestorm. I was young, and we fell in love. Soon, she was carrying my kits."

"What happened?" Snowpaw whispered.

"The night she was kitting, ShadowClan attacked. One of the ShadowClan warriors broke into the nursery, Murkymind."

"Is he a muddy brown tom?"

"Yes. He saw her lying there, with Gingerblaze still wailing, not yet by her belly. He attacked and killed Squirrelfur, and was about to kill Gingerblaze when I arrived. He ran like a coward, but I was able to save Gingerblaze. I have nursed a deep grudge ever since." Flamestar sighed once more. "It has been a long time since I have related these events. Thank you, Snowpaw. For asking. And for listening. Now, shouldn't you be off hunting with Stormpaw?"

"Oh! Right, sorry." Snowpaw bowed her head respectfully, and backed out of the den.

Well, that was unexpected. Snowpaw thought as she headed over to Stormpaw. I wouldn't have expected the clan leader to suddenly spill his deepest secrets to a mere apprentice!

"Hey Snowpaw. What did Flamestar want?" Stormpaw meowed, smoothing his tail fur.

"He said we get to go to the gathering tonight!" Snowpaw yowled, bounding and bowling over the dark blue tabby.

Stormpaw hissed playfully, swiping at the white she-cat. "Awesome!" he shrieked. The two apprentices wrestled in the dust for a moment before an angry yowl sounded from the elder's den.

"Will you two bring me some fresh-kill?! I am waiting!" It was the unmistakable voice of Onefoot, the blackish brown elder, who was possibly the harshest to Snowpaw compared to Rainpaw and Pinepelt.

"Erg!" Snowpaw pushed Stormpaw off of her and headed over to the fresh-kill pile. She selected a vole and padded over to Onefoot. He sniffed the vole disdainfully.

"Honestly, Onefoot. What's wrong with it?" Amberfang rasped, giving the vole a sweeping glance.

"It stinks of kittypet." Hissed Onefoot, but Graybite growled.

"Just eat it, Onefoot. There's nothing wrong with it, or with Snowpaw! Now apologize and say thank you to the apprentice who puts up with your griping!" For a moment it seemed like Onefoot was about to choke. He almost fell over with the effort of saying 'Thank you I'm sorry'.

"What an old fur ball!" Hissed Snowpaw, once she was out hunting with Stormpaw. She was still fuming from the elder's treatment of her.

"Hey, it's okay. Onefoot's always been a pain in the tail. He would complain if a warrior of StarClan brought him fresh-kill!" Stormpaw meowed, placing the tip of his tail on Snowpaw's shoulder. "Besides, we are going to the Gathering! Doesn't that make you happy?"

"Grr." Snowpaw growled, flattening her ears. She was happy, of course, but still… Despite it being over half a moon since she had discarded her collar, Onefoot, Rainpaw, and Pinepelt had made it their personal mission to make her life miserable.

When the sun had sunk low in the sky, the two of them headed back to the camp. Flamestar was standing at the entrance to camp, surrounded by a group of cats.

"Put that down, then follow me." The ginger tom meowed, nodding to their prey. Once they had done that, Flamestar bounded down to the lakeshore, leading ThunderClan along the shore.

The lake was really huge. Snowpaw could barely see the distant bank, but the Island stood out against the water; a great black jagged rock, with several huge pines standing tall against the blood-red sun.

"It's amazing." Murmured Snowpaw, her amber eyes widening.

"I know, right?" Stormpaw had fallen into step behind Flamestar, and Snowpaw bounded next to him. The ThunderClan cats bounded as one along the shore, murmuring excitedly. Snowpaw caught the scent of a huge group of cats up ahead, and soon they had reached the Island.

The bridge to the Island was a huge dead tree, which had fallen seemingly seasons ago, and now formed a path to the Gathering place.

Already the hollow was filled with cats. From the scents, she could tell that the assembled cats were only ShadowClan and WindClan.

"Where's RiverClan?" She hissed to Bramblepelt. The dark tabby smiled, and bent his head down to Snowpaw's ear to hiss back.

"Since RiverClan is so close to the Island, Ebonstar thinks it's fair to let the other clans chat amongst themselves before the Gathering starts."

"Ah…" Snowpaw mewed, and dashed off along the bridge to catch up with Stormpaw. Amongst the assembled cats, Snowpaw saw the black furred apprentice, Nightpaw sitting next to an olive-green tom and a reddish brown tom.

"Nightpaw!" Snowpaw mewed, sinking onto her haunches next to the she-cat.

She smiled and purred. "Nightpaw? Don't know her. I'm Nightpool."

"What?" Snowpaw almost fell over from shock. "Y-you're a warrior?"

"Yep. Only for two nights. I have some cats you might want to meet." She flicked her tail at the two apprentices beside her. "This is Olivepaw, and Applepaw."

"Hey." Olivepaw purred. "Nightpool told us all about you. Snowpaw, right?"

"Yeah. You know, I've been meaning to ask Tawnyflower, but whose ShadowClan's medicine cat?" Snowpaw meowed, looking around.

"Sprucepelt. My older brother." Olivepaw grinned. "He once tried to give me nightshade because I was laughing at him when he got herbs up his nose."

"How did he get herbs up his nose?" Snowpaw mewed, smiling as well.

"My mother was annoyed at him and stuffed the yarrow leaves up his nose!" Olivepaw began laughing, and Applepaw, who had not said a word all this time, managed a small smile.

There was a small commotion as a group of cats crossed the tree-bridge. At the head of them was an enormously fat black and dark gray tom. He was smiling at all the cats he passed, and Snowpaw guessed that this must be Ebonstar, RiverClan's leader.

Ebonstar trotted over to the huge tree in the center of the island, where the other three leaders were sitting on one of the four branches. Ebonstar crouched low, wiggled his rear and leapt up onto his branch. Then he fell right off again.

Snowpaw was not sure why all the other cats laughed good-naturedly as Ebonstar scrambled back up onto his branch, smiling widely. "Why did he do that?" she hissed to Nightpool.

"Oh, he always does that. It's his way of keeping the Gathering in a good mood." Nightpool purred, watching the black tom right himself on the branch and gaze at his fellow leaders.

Breezestar looked around at the assembled cats and began to yowl. "WindClan has had no trouble with the badger ThunderClan reported last Gathering. My warriors drove it into the territory behind the moors. We have seen many twolegs hiking up the hills, a large female and five kits. They were shrieking and waving sticks around. They headed into your territory, Flamestar. I would watch out for them."

"Thank you, Breezestar. My patrols will keep an eye out." Flamestar meowed, nodding to Breezestar. Then he began to speak. "One of my patrols was attacked by ShadowClan cats well within our own borders. You yourself headed the attack, Pebblestar. I must warn you that ThunderClan will not tolerate this invasion of our territory."

Pebblestar began licking his front paw and washed his ear. He looked up at Flamestar, smiling slightly. "Really, Flamestar. Did you honestly think that your clan could get away with hoarding your territory? ShadowClan has many mouths to feed. And, from what I hear, so do RiverClan. What do you say, Ebonstar? Will you help me teach ThunderClan a lesson?"

Ebonstar looked confused. "I don't know what you mean, Pebblestar. My clan has plenty of prey. Why would we attack ThunderClan?"

Pebblestar shrugged. "I thought you might want too take revenge for the oppression of all of our clans. I mean, just because the legendary Three were ThunderClan cats doesn't mean you can lord over all of us. What about you, Breezestar? WindClan has been oppressed just as much as ShadowClan. Will you join us to defeat these ThunderClan tyrants?"
"Of course not!" hissed Breezestar, her eyes slits. "I know as soon as I lift a paw to help you, next you'll be invading our territory! Not a chance, Pebblestar."

"Well, I guess we must defeat these tyrants on our own. Shame. I was going to give you each a slice of their territory. Well, this Gathering is over. You can expect trouble, Flamestar. I will make sure of that." And with that, Pebblestar bounded to the tree-bridge, his warriors following him, hissing at the ThunderClan cats they passed.

"Sorry!" mewed Nightpool, turning to follow her leader. Olivepaw and Applepaw shot Snowpaw apologetic looks before bounding after Nightpool.

"Well, that's bad." Meowed Stormpaw once he had pushed himself past a olive-green WindClan she-cat. "I knew that there was going to be trouble, once Pebblestar started speaking. Bit of a let-down, especially on our first Gathering!"

"I know. Great StarClan, I wish everything had gone well." Snowpaw mewed, turning to follow Flamestar as the ginger tom crossed the tree-bridge.

The possible thought of a ShadowClan attack was not the only thing that was bothering Snowpaw. When Pebblestar had declared that there was trouble coming for ThunderClan, she had noticed Rainpaw with an almost triumphant smirk upon his pale blue face.

Was Rainpaw somehow involved with the coming attack? If so, why would he lead his bloodthirsty enemies to attack his mother and father?

My life is getting more complicated by the day. Thought Snowpaw as she curled up next to Stormpaw back in the ThunderClan camp.