A/N: Hey, I'm back! This is my first chapter in what, a year, year and a half? More? Yikes. I'll try to restart regular (ish) updates though, sound good? Oh, and please excuse the cruddieness of the previous chapters, I like to think I've improved since then. But I won't really know unless you guys review, right? :)
Chapter 10: In Preperation
A few weeks later, it was the night of the full moon. Icepaw woke up exited for her first ever gathering. She was so exited that she couldn't concentrate on her lesson that day.
"No, Icepaw!" Lionsky scolded, "If you tried hunting like that all the prey in the forest would scamper and no one would catch a thing! Pay attention."
"Sorry, Lionsky." Icepaw muttered, rolling over onto her paws. She had tried to charge at an invisible bird and had somehow ended up on her back. "I'm just exited for tonight!"
"What, the Gathering?"
"Yes the Gathering!" Icepaw popped up onto her feet and started running in circles. "I can't wait! I'll be able to see all the Clan leaders, and the deputies, and cats from all the different clans, and, and, and…"
"Calm down!" Lionsky laughed at the small cat's antics.
Icepaw was still running in circles when Mosspaw and Squirreltail came into the clearing. It was funny to see the apprentice and mentor together, because even young Mosspaw was a little bigger then the tiny warrior. Squirreltail's ears perked up when she saw Icepaw running, as if getting ready to run herself.
"What's going on?" The little warrior asked, stepping from paw to paw.
"Icepaw's just exited for the Gathering." Lionsky explained.
"So am I!" Mosspaw commented.
"Oh yeah, this'll be your first Gathering too, huh Mosspaw?" Lionsky smiled at the apprentice as he nodded enthusiastically. Icepaw stopped her running and looked at him mischievously.
"Well I certainly hope you haven't been giving the elders moss lately, or else you won't be able to come tonight either!" She told him teasingly. He gave her a look.
"Very funny, Icepaw." He said with the same teasing tone, "But just to be safe, maybe you should take over my responsibilities. Sandfoot told me he liked the food you brought him yesterday."
"Hmm," Icepaw thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No, I think you'll be fine. You seem a lot more capable then last full moon. And that, my friend, means you're just a little less capable then a regular cat."
"Like you're more capable then I am." He scoffed. Icepaw gasped and pretended to be offended.
After some more failed attempts at hunting invisible prey, Lionsky gave up and told Icepaw to go groom herself for the Gathering. Icepaw nodded and raced off towards the camp.
When Icepaw shot through the ferns covering the camp entrance, (accidentally tearing a leaf off of one, which earned her a disapproving look from Hawkface) she found Skypaw and Blackpaw lying by the apprentices den, already grooming themselves, preparing for that night. She guessed that Spottedpaw must have been out with her mentor, otherwise Blackpaw would be with her. Icepaw happily made her way over to her siblings.
"Hey guys, are you exited for the Gathering tonight?" She asked. Then she stopped and thought, of course they were exited! But to her surprise they only shrugged.
"I don't know," Skypaw said, "maybe."
"What?" Icepaw exclaimed as Blackpaw nodded in agreement with Skypaw. "How are you guys not exited?"
"Well we've already been to a Gathering." Blackpaw said. "And it's fun, but it's mostly just listening to the leaders all discuss stuff. Not very exiting when you think about it."
"Yeah, but you get to meet cats from all the different clans! Isn't that exiting?"
"Sure it is, but really, how much is there to discuss with a MarshClan cat?" Blackpaw shrugged.
Icepaw sighed and shook her head as she flopped to the ground. "You've been spending too much time with Spottedpaw, Blackpaw."
Skypaw snorted. "Isn't that right. That cat is so…" He trailed off, not knowing a word strong enough to sum up how much Spottedpaw got on his nerves, but Icepaw knew what he meant anyway. Skypaw was good at that, getting his point across, even without using many words.
"She's not so bad." Blackpaw said in Spottedpaw's defence. Icepaw and Skypaw both shook their heads.
"She's different, Blackpaw." Skypaw said. "She's not the same as she was when she was a kit. She's uppity and rude and absolutely insufferable." He sat on his haunches and started cleaning his belly.
"Skypaw's right, Spottedpaw's changed. I don't know why you hang out with her." Icepaw said.
Blackpaw shuffled her paws nervously. "I know, guys. I'm not mouse-brained, I can tell she's changed. But I think she's just confused. And what would happen if I just left her alone? Then she'd be even more horrid to all of us." She sighed. "I know you two don't like her, but I think she needs a friend right now. She needs someone to help her change again."
Skypaw shook his head. "I don't think so, Blackpaw. I don't think she's going to change again, because if she could she would've already." With that he got up and walked away, leaving the sisters sitting alone.
"What's with him?" Blackpaw wondered aloud.
Icepaw shrugged. "I think he's taken Spottedpaw's whole change personally, like she did it just to betray him or something."
"That's ridiculous." Blackpaw scoffed.
"Yeah. It's not really her fault, either you know." Icepaw said, thinking of something she had observed recently. "Leopardheart…"
"I know!" Blackpaw interrupted Icepaw, a bad habit of hers. "It's totally his influence or whatever on her." They were referring to Leopardheart, Spottedpaw's mentor. He was rude and impolite, especially to apprentices it seemed. Icepaw couldn't help but wonder if Spottedpaw had gotten a different mentor, would she still have changed the way she did?
Blackpaw and Icepaw had been grooming in silence for a while, when Mosspaw and Squirreltail arrived at the camp and came over to the apprentices den.
"Hey girls!" Squirreltail said cheerily. "Exited for tonight?" Blackpaw shrugged, but Icepaw nodded enthusiastically. Squirreltail laughed. "Awesome. See you guys later!" She trotted over to the warriors den, where she was greeted cheerily by Mouseshadow and Lionsky. Squirreltail was just one of those cats who was friends with just about everybody, even the apprentices.
Mosspaw stretched out on the ground by Icepaw and Blackpaw and started grooming. They sat there in comfortable silence for a while, trying to get all the grime and knots out of their fur. When Icepaw and Blackpaw had finished, Mosspaw was still trying to get at a particularly clumped patch in the middle of his back. He couldn't reach it, and Icepaw thought it was very amusing. He stuck his tongue out as far as it would go and craned his neck so far that he ended up on his hind legs, reaching for the clump on his back.
And then, when he was just about to get it, he lost balance and fell over onto his back. Icepaw and Blackpaw laughed.
"You're getting yourself all grimy again!" Icepaw said as he rolled over onto his paws. "Here, hold still." She went over and started working at the patch on his back. It was really knotted up, and she wondered how long it had been since he had cleaned it.
It was then that Spottedpaw arrived at the apprentices den. "Oh, why lookie here!" She exclaimed. "What's this, little brother?" She asked in a very suggestive tone of voice, like she already knew very well what was going on, or thought she did anyway. Icepaw's fur bristled.
"What do you want, Spottedpaw?" Icepaw asked testily. She didn't care what Blackpaw thought right then, she was tired of Spottedpaw's constant attitude, like she was so obviously better then any of them.
"Oh why nothing!" She said, as if offended they would even think such a thing. Icepaw snorted, Spottedpaw was so full of dirt. She ignored Icepaw, sitting on the ground on the other side of Blackpaw and beginning her own grooming regimen.
"So, Icepaw, you nervous about tonight?" She asked haughtily.
"No, why would I be?" Spottedpaw just shrugged.
"Oh well, I just thought you would be, considering you'll have to cross the Thunderpath. You did know you have to cross the Thunderpath, right?" She said, mock concern positively dripping from her voice.
"Of course I do. Everyone knows that. Why would that make me nervous?"
"Well, you know, you had that, um, incident, when you were a kit, so I thought you might be a little… apprehensive."
Icepaw snorted. "I'm not going to be scared of the Thunderpath, Spottedpaw. Monsters are the only thing that make the Thunderpath actually dangerous, and the older cats will make sure that when we cross there won't be any Monsters in sight. Nothing to be nervous about. Are you sure you'll be okay, Spottedpaw? You look a little scared yourself."
Spottedpaw seemed to jump a little at that, as if shocked that Icepaw had guessed, but she quickly regained her superior air. "Well, we'll just see about that, won't we?" She said, then got to her paws and stalked away to groom somewhere else, followed by Blackpaw, loyal as ever. That was possibly, Icepaw thought, her sisters best quality and worst flaw all in one. She sighed and hoped the large black cat was right about her friend.
The day seemed to stretch on forever, and Icepaw constantly found herself staring at shadows cast the dens, the freshkill pile, even other cats, willing them to get longer. But the sun was stubborn and never seemed to move. Icepaw had just about given up on ever seeing a Gathering when Redflower came up to her and said the group of FangClan cats that were leaving for the Gathering were almost ready to go, and was she coming? Icepaw let out a small squeak of excitement and raced to the entrance of the camp. The cats were indeed heading out.
Finally, Icepaw was going to a Gathering!