Oh, I'm so sorry this toke so long, I got a writer's block about at the start, and that lasted to long, I'm so sorry, but I hope you enjoy this one
Disclaimer-I don't own Warrior's, because if I did, Crowfeather would be happy about being Nightcloud's mate^-^
''''''''''''''''''
Sandstorm held herself still when Ravenpaw nuzzled her.
"It's so nice to see you-"Sandstorm stopped herself when she tasted the air, it smelled like, Spottedleaf,
Sandstorm pushed herself away from the black loner.
"Ravenpaw" Sandstorm said, her pale green eyes narrowed, "where's Spottedleaf" she asked, Ravenpaw look taken back. "I smell her on your pelt, now, where is she?" Sandstorm asked her pale green eye boring holes in to Ravenpaw's green gaze.
"Okay, but you can't tell Firestar, okay?" the black cat asked, Sandstorm let her head fall to one side.
"Why not?"
"You just can't"
Sandstorm paused, her eyes looking at nothing, as if she were in deep thought,
After what felt like moons to Ravenpaw, the pale ginger she-cat spoke.
"Fine",
"Good" the black loner sighed, but began with his story.
'''''''''
Firestar pushed himself out of his den and on to the high rock.
"All cats old enough to catch their own prey, join here, beneath the high rock, for a clan meeting" he voice was firm, even if his heart was broken. His green gaze swiped the clearing for the ginger fur of Sandstorm, and the dappled coat of Spottedleaf, he sighed when he found nether of them.
He looked to Graystripe as the gray tom-cat took his place at the base of the rock. Graystripe turned his head to his leader and looked him in the eyes, his gaze seemed to show understanding of how the ginger tom felt, pain and heart break from both the she-cat's he loved.
He lowered his head and spoke flatly "Graystripe, Cloudtail, Brightheart, Bramblepaw, Cinderpelt, and Fernpaw"
"And Sandstorm and Spottedleaf" he whispered to himself "will come with me to the gartering" he dipped his head to all his clan, then he turned and padded back to his den.
Graystripe stared after him, his yellow eyes filled with worry.
'''''''
All the cats Firestar had picked waited in a group around the high rock, waiting for their ginger furred leader to tell them it was time to go.
"When are we going to go!" Fernpaw whaled to Cloudtail after a few moments.
"Shh" the white warrior whispered to the young she-cat, "we're just waiting for Firestar",
"But he's taking so long" the she-cat mewed,
"Don't worry Fernpaw" Bramblepaw piped up, "I'll find you something fun to play with"
"Thanks Bramblepaw" Fernpaw purred,
"I'd like that"
"is every cat going to find a mate!" Cinderpelt burst out suddenly.
"Cinderpelt!" Brightheart squeaked in shock at her sister's outburst.
"I'm sorry" Cinderpelt hung her head in shame, "it's just, I never asked for this, I wanted to be a warrior, to hunt, to fight for my clan, to have kits, to have a mate"
"It's alright" Brightheart soothed, running her ginger tail across her sister's sot colored flank.
''''''''''
Sandstorm stood rooted to the ground with her mouth agape.
Ravenpaw took in a breath to refill his lungs, for he had just tried to tell the ginger she-cat his story all in one breathe.
Sandstorm closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes
"How in Starclan's name could that be true" she burst in a rather angry tone of voice, she press her forepaw to her face and shut her pale green's,.
"That's what Spottedleaf told me" Ravenpaw said, his eyes filled with worry for the she-cat he loved, even if she was Firestar's mate.
"Take me to her" Sandstorm begged the black loner. He looked her in the eyes , his green eyes narrowed in to a glare. After what felt like a moon, he sighed. "As long as you don't breathe a word to Firestar"
"But-" Sandstorm began, but she quitted herself when Ravenpaw fixed her with an icy glance.
"Okay, for you"
''''''''
"And that's you pouch on a vole" Spottedleaf told Barley. when the black-and-white cat woke up and found her there, after telling him what happened, he had asked her to show him how clan cat's live, and she had been glad to show him.
The dappled warrior lifted her head to the door of the barn when Ravenpaw skirted in.
"Where have you been" Barley asked the black loner.
"Can't tell you" Ravenpaw spoke, sounding out of breath, as if he had ran all the way here.
He turned his green eyes to her, and smiled, "Spottedleaf, can I talk to you outside?" he asked her.
"Sure", she responded.
'Why outside?'
She asked herself, she fallowed the tom-cat out in to the open, her amber eye's fell on the setting sun.
'Its full moon tonight, is Firestar worried about how the gathering, or me?'
"Spottedleaf!"
The spotted warriors burst out of her thoughts and looked up to the owner of the voice.
A lone cat was sitting in a nest of hay and grass, looked to be a she-cat,
Pale ginger, faint ginger strikes, pale green eyes.
"Sandstorm!" Spottedleaf piped, "What are you doing here?"
She gasped and turned to the black cat next to her, "why? Why did you bring her here?"
"She found out you where here from your scent, she made me take her to you" he hung his head and closed his eyes.
"Spottedleaf!" Sandstorm called once more, she lifted herself off of her make sift nest and padded over to the dappled she-cat, "where in Starclan's name have you been?, do you know how worried all of Thunderclan is"
"I don't care if they are, Firestar did not care when I left, so why should I care"
"Of course he cared!, he slept out in the open last night because he was so tired from looking for you, please, will you come with me to the gathering?" Sandstorm asked. Spottedleaf could feel the she-cat's pale green gaze burning in to her, waiting for her answer.
"I…" she paused, her mouth slightly agape, trying to find a way to answer her clan mate. After a few moments, she lowered her head.
"I….I..I can't"
Her voice was so small, it was almost a whisper, but Sandstorm had heard it, she could tell, because the ginger warrior looked taking back, surprise lit her eyes, "what do you mean? Why can't you"
"Because Firestar Loves You More!" Spottedleaf said with more spite then she intended, "it's hard to see you two in love, when feeling the way I do about him, and sometime's, I just can't help but wish I was his mate"
Sandstorm nodded her head, that's how she thought she would feel if Firestar was not her mate, "I understand"
The ginger turned to leave, but turned her head back to Spottedleaf, "if I were you, I would just be happy to be with him with the time I have"
She chuckled when the dappled warrior's eye's flashed. "Yeah, I know" with that, she raced off.
'''''''''
Firestar lapped his tongue over his fiery pelt, making sure he groomed every stray end of ginger fur back in to place. Even if Spottedleaf had run off, he still did not want to look like Bluestar after Tigerstar. He knew that if you were ungroomed, that meant you were weak, and Starclan knows what the other clan would do to you if you were weak. He had to make the other clans think everything was fine, even if it was not,
After he made sure his pelt was clean as could be, he pushed his way out of his den.
His green eye's trailing over the camp.
He rushed over to the cats he had picked to go with him.
"Ready to go?" he asked them
"Yes" Fernpaw mewed from her place beside Bramblepaw, "I've been ready for ever" Firestar smiled
"Just wanting to make sure"
''''''''
Spottedleaf stared after Sandstorm.
The ginger she-cat had make Spottedleaf ponder allot of things.
Mainly Firestar.
He did love her, she was sure of that, but did he love Sandstorm more? That she could not answer.
"Spottedleaf?" Ravenpaw asked, for the spotted she-cat had been looking off in to the moor lands for some time.
"Yes?" Spottedleaf said, shaking her head, faintly out of her train of thought.
Spottedleaf turned her amber eyes back to the moor land, Sandstorm was right. If she had this time with Firestar, why not enjoy it when it lasted?. It was worth it, that's all she knew, and that's all she wanted to know.
Firestar would be half-way to the gathering by now, if she wanted to be with him there, she had to hurry, "Ravenpaw?"
"Yeah?"
"Tell Barley I can't show him anymore,…I have to be with Firestar"
Ravenpaw's green eyes widened, "you'er-you'er leavening?" he gasped. After a moment, he sighed, "How did I know you were going to say that" he chuckled, "alright, go on"
Spottedleaf dipped her head to the black cat, then dash off to find Firestar.
'''''''''''
Sandstorm carefully groomed all of the Windclan scent off of her pelt, making sure not to leave one scrap of it on her ginger fur. She wanted no cat thinking she had been anywhere near Windclan or Ravenpaw.
"Well, well, what we have here" Sandstorm squeaked at the new voice and turned to see Mudclaw, the Windclan deputy, just inside Windclan territory, staring her down.
"Firestar's mate, all alone, so close to Windclan, grooming what is no doubt Windclan scent off of her pelt, just tell me, what are you doing here" he added a dark tone to his voice at the end.
"Why would it matter to you" Sandstorm said, careful not to give him any answer in the mood of her voice. "Just seeing what I should tell Tallstar" he chuckled.
Sandstorm's eyes widened, "but I'm not in Windclan!"
"Your scent is all over, you were, that's for sure"
Without warning, he dashed in to her and grabbed her by her scruff, and tried to drag her in to Windclan.
"Let me go!"
Sandstorm thrashed and twisted. Trying to slice her claws across Mudclaw, any part of him. The more she tried, the more his teeth bit in to her flesh,
She felt sharp pain shoot her, and warm blood leak down her back and head, leavening scarlet drops on the green grass.
She froze when she felt her skin rip under the Windclan deputy's teeth.
'Not to worry'
She told herself 'Firestar will come for me…., won't he?'