Chapter 4
"Opalkit from this moment on until you recieve your warrior name you will be Opalpaw! Your mentor will be Pebblestream who will take you to the Moonoak on the next halfmoon!" Pebblestream padded up to Opalpaw and touches noses with her. Opalpaw looked at him her eyes filled with excitement of being a medicine cat apprentice."So what are we going to do today Pebblestream?"She mewed quickly. He thought and mewed"We will make you a nest in your new den and you will be learning the shape,scent and look of some herbs."The apprentice looked happy and they padded off to the medicine cat den to start the training that the young cat had been waiting for.
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Pebblestream looked up at the full moon watching it his eyes filled with wonder. It had been a half moon and now Opalpaw was his apprentice. She was eager to learn and had unending sympathy and energy for her patients. Now it was time for him to introduce his new apprentice to the other clans, hoping that her first gathering would end well unlike his. When he was just an apprentice he was tackled by a Sunclan apprentice, that cat was Gemwhisker. She had thought he was threatening her mentor and attacked luckily a cloud covered the moon and she let go. Opalpaw looked at Pebblestream and mewed"So when Scarletstar announces for us to leave we just follow her until we reach the clearing?" Pebblestream nodded and he watched her eyes brighten up with the thought of meeting other cats. Scarletstar soon padded out of her den and mewed"The patrol for the gathering is now leaving!" She padded out of camp with the patrol following her. Opalpaw and Pebblestream were last to pad out and Opalpaw's tail was twitching anxiously as they padded out.
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When they arrived at the clearing Opalpaw eyes widened as she scanned the area and she whispers"It's amazing! I've never seen so many cats in one place before!" Pebblestream laughed and mewed"You will get used to it Opalpaw but for now why don't you go and talk to some clan cats maybe you will meet someone that will be your friend. But be careful not to give out any information that could be used against our clan." Opalpaw nodded and mewed"Alright I wont!"By the time she had said the last word she was already running off into the crowd of cats. Pebblestream watched the last part of her tail disappear and he surpressed a mrrow of laughter. He felt a tail flick his shoulder and he turned around and saw Gemwhisker "Hey Gemwhisker!" he smiled and looked at her calmly. Gemwhisker flicked her ear"The clan is well except...."she paused for a few moments and she opened her mouth again to speak but was interupted by Strikingstar's yowl to start the meeting"The gathering shall now begin." Scarletstar was the first to step up and she talked about how the prey ran so far."We are doing well in newleaf and cant wait until the sunny days of greenleaf"she nodded and padded back to her place beside Strikingstar. Emberstar was the next to step up his eyes were narrowed and he looked around the clearing and yowled"Sunclan is well and Leafbare was kind to us, Newleaf is going along fine except for one problem." By the time he reached the last word a growl had risen into his other three leaders looked at him and the cats below began to murmur flicked his tail signaling them to silence and he snarled"Snowclan has been stealing prey and crossing the border!" Strikingstar looked at him and mewed"Are you sure or are you just bringing this uprising to this gathering just to steal some territory?"Her pale blue eyes shone in the moonlight daring him to say glared at her angrily"They did Strikingstar we have found traces of pigeon and mouse by the border with Snowclan scent on it, these things have been going on for possibly a moon now." Scarletstar hissed"No Snowclan cat would ever break the warrior code and steal prey from you Emberstar!"Her eyes narrowed and she spat" Are you just going to blame us just to start a war?" Emberstar's red eyes blazed like fire and his muscles bunched beneath his pelt and he leap his claws glinting. Before Scarletstar could even move she was pinned down to the ground, the crowd of cats surrounding them had their eyes wide with gray clouds covered the moon and the cats murmured ominously, one cat screeched"Starclan is signaling this battle to stop!" Emberstar's eyes glinted and he growled biting into Scarletstar's neck. She struggled and clawed his belly with her claws but soon her attacks grew weaker and the light in her eyes disappeared. Pebblestream looked at what was going on and he yowled"NO! Scarletstar!" Her paw moved and she got back up her eye closed."Don't worry Pebblestream it will be alright..." Strikingstar let out a hiss and leaped onto Emberstar biting his shoulder"You should know better than to attack a clan leader!"Emberstar threw her off and rain began to fall "Come Sunclan this gathering is over."The Sunclan cats followed their leader as he left the clearing toward his camp,leaving the other cats to be watching in shock.
Chapter 5
After the gathering had ended the patrol of Snowclan cats walked back to their camp. Pebblestream padded beside Scarletstar supporting her with his shoulder, he murmured softly."Don't worry Scarletstar we are almost in camp." She looked at him and nodded, her eyes were brimmed with the pain from some other wounds and being on her 8th life she was weaker than ever.
When they arrived at camp the patrol broke up and the warriors went to their den and the apprentices went to go and gossip about the gathering. Pebblestream lead Scarletstar into the medicine cat den with Opalpaw following him."Do you think she will be alright Pebblestream?" He looked at his apprentice and nodded"We just need to fix her wounds and then give her some herbs and she will be just fine." Scarletstar was already laying down in a nest her head on her paws. Opalpaw padded to the herb storage and grabbed cobwebs and some marigold, she looked at her leader's wounds and put a poulitice of marigold on them. On the wounds that were still bleeding she pressed some cobwebs to them and then added the poulitice. Pebblestream watched her and then went to the herb storage and grabbed 3 poppy seeds. He went over to Scarletstar and layed them infront of her. She gratefully lapped them up and soon fell asleep."You did a great job Opalpaw considering this is your first day as medicine cat. Now go get some rest you deserve it." Opalpaw nodded, it felt like her paws were going to fall off! She went to a nest and layed down in it, soon drifting off to sleep. Pebblestream looked at her and smiled, he cleaned up the den sorting a few herbs. He yawned and padded to his nest, layed down and fell asleep. When he awoke he was in the clearing again but the grass was soft and clean.
"Hello? Starclan do you have something to say to me?" He saw the same three cats again and he thought ~What were their names again? Was it Tansy...breeze? Thunder...something.. and Cloudblossom?~ His eyes opened and he was in the mountains again. Tansybreeze,Thunderflight, and Cloudblossom were walking toward a large river. He smiled at the thought of them getting away from the hawk successfully. Cloudblossom looked at her sister and mewed"How will we get across that river I don't really see a way around it or stones that we can use to get across... I think that we have to swim our way there." Before Tansybreeze could reply Thunderflight butt into their conversation"But we can't the current is probably too strong and we will most likely be swept away! Plus I can't swim with my injured shoulder."Tansybreeze sighed"I agree lets just try to find another way around it maybe we could just go through the shallower ends you never know it may work." Cloudblossom nods"Alright lets go the faster we find a shallower area the faster we can go and get to our destination." They continued to walk and soon found a area of water that only went up to their bellyfur. Cloudblossom was the first to go followed by her sister and last to go was her older brother. Cloudblossom crossed it quickly and reached the other side quickly, Tansybreeze dragged behind her but made it a few heartbeats after her.
Thunderflight was in the middle but he was drifting off course, ever since he was a kit he was afraid of water but this brought it to a new level of fear. Pebblestream was beside him but he was just like mist unable to be seen. Thunderflight looked up and saw his sisters waiting for him he continued walking but slipped and fell in the deeper parts of the water. He got up and spit out some water. He struggled to get up onto his feet but before he could he was swept underwater. Cloudblossom saw him go under and ran into the water"Thunderlight no!" She went into the deeper area and swam toward him grabbing a hold of his neck fur but she chocked on some water and let go. Tansybreeze had no choice but to leap in and swim over to them, they had to stick together or death would certainly come. As they went farther down the river being swept by the current. The strength of it increased and they soon got swept apart from each other. Thunderflight was struggling to swim toward the land coughing up water as he went. Tansybreeze managed to get onto the land dragging her sister onto the pebbles with her. "No...he can't be gone we have to find him Cloudblossom..." She watched as Thunderflight disappeared under the water and past many rocks, before he disappeared they heard him yowl."HELP!" but it was soon stopped by the rush of water...