Here is Chapter 8, and Part II of Gatherings, New Faces and Deputies.

In my last chapter, everyone that reviewed had noticed a slip up which is the mark of writing at 9:15pm while listening to ITV Player on the ITV Website.

Cats, I am afraid, can't clap. :(

On the plus side, I now have a reader from Australia, and I have two new reviewers. Thank you to Sage and Nianque!

I am going to write another Warriors story, about what would happen to the warrior cats if we Twolegs staged Nuclear War. Expect the first chapter to be up tonight! :)

Blazingfire: You never annoy me while you keep reviewing!!!! XD

The POV is from Crowstar!

Happy Reading!

Chapter 8 – Gatherings, New Faces and Deputies Part II

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and everything felt perfect. But all that peace will go away that evening. It was the full moon, and it would be our first Gathering since we all left. What would happen?

Brambleclaw, even though he was the most natural leader out of all of us, was still struggling to come to terms with his appointment as deputy. I felt I needed to, and he seemed really surprised by it. But to be frank, he was the only person for the job. This was his opportunity to step out of his father's shadow, and believe that he will.

I made my way out of the shelter of the overhang on the roof of my den to the nursery, where I sought after Stone, who was beginning to look better, according to Tawnypelt. When I entered the den, he looked totally different.

His previously dull pelt was shining again, and his amber eyes that had been dimmed in trauma had flashed back into life. He had lost his limp and was playing with Tawnypelt's three kits that were jumping all over the grey loner.

"Hi, Stone," I greeted him as I settled down on some of the moss that no-one was using. "Are you any better?"

"Better? I feel great!" he said as he got up with the kits following his tail and grabbing it with their small paws.

"Good!" I exclaimed happily. When he was better and among other cats, he seemed a much friendlier and happier cat. "Stone, as you know, we are still looking for cats to join, and we would really like it if you trained as an apprentice warrior. What do you say?" I didn't want to rush him in to anything, but the sooner he was trained, the better for EarthClan.

"Okay," he nodded, suddenly becoming all serious. "What happens in the apprentice stage?"

"You will get assigned a warrior to become your mentor, and you learn the warrior code, how to hunt and fight and many of the other attributes needed to become a warrior," I told him as clearly as I could without sounding patronising.

"Okay…yeah, I would be honoured to!" he stood up and asked, "Er….when do I start?"

"Right now!" I motioned for him to follow me on to the GorgeRock.

He scrabbled onto the large rock as I called yet another meeting. The other cats were starting to get worn out walking to the same place multiple times in a day…

"Stone has decided he would like to stay here in EarthClan, and has decided to start his apprenticeship. Stone," I gestured him to stand in front of the rock "from this moment, until you have earned your warrior name, you will be known as Stonepaw. Brambleclaw," the tabby warrior was in for another shock "since you are now a deputy, you must have had at least one apprentice or mentoring your first apprentice. To comply with the warrior code, and my own reasons of strength and loyalty," his eyes glazed over at that word. Was that good or bad? "You will mentor Stonepaw."

The tabby tom and the grey apprentice touched noses. It seemed strange that Stonepaw was still quite tall and almost the height of Brambleclaw. Normally, apprentices would start training at six moons old, but Stonepaw was obviously older.

"As we are now a proper Clan, we should start to lay down some boundaries for intruders that feel like they can trespass on our territory. Brambleclaw, Stonepaw, Squirrelflight, Leafpool and Stormfur follow me. Afterwards, we can show where our borders are to the cats that didn't come with us now. Are you ready?" everybody nodded. "Then let's go!"

We set off towards the entrance, a sense of new filling the air as the first boundaries were about to be set! We kept walking through the forest until we ended up at the rocks like Sunningrocks and the small stream.

"I think we can call this Fish River. RiverClan cats or cats that can fish can hunt here," I called to the patrol. We sprayed our scent along the other side of the river so we could claim it.

"Yay, we have some rocks like the Sunningrocks!" Squirrelflight purred as she sat down on the Sunningrocks. We all took a rest on the nice, warm rocks then carried on to a small oak forest not far from the river.

"This is most like ThunderClan territory, so these can be called Thunder Forest," I called to the patrol again. The rest of the patrol nodded as we skirted the outside of the small wood and sprayed around it as we went.

Next up was a small pine forest. It was a lot like ShadowClan's territory back at the lake. "This can be Shadow Pines," I said to the interested patrol. "This is most like the pines in ShadowClan."

"Tawnypelt would like this," Brambleclaw commented as we travelled through the small pines. There were quite a lot of them, but they were spread out and there was room to manoeuvre through little grass paths dotted around.

Finally, we got out of Shadow Pines and went off towards the end of our territoryl Suddenly, I saw…moors!!! They had moors, like back at the lake! This reminded me of home, as I saw the rabbits bounding around the rises and small bushes littered around the area.

I was ecstatic, "This is called Wind Moors. Cats that can catch rabbits on the moors, can hunt here," I couldn't stop smiling.

Leafpool came up to join me as we skirted the outside of the moors, "I guess you liked that then," she noticed.

I didn't even need to tell her, "Every Clan cat here has some place to remind them of home."

I felt much safer now that we had some boundaries. Now cats know we are here! The Greenleaf sun scorched our pelts as we crossed the open moors. There must be some shelter here… I had forgotten how barren the moors could be. Suddenly, I could see a small bracken bush that our patrol can shelter in for a moment.

"There is a bracken bush up ahead that we can rest in for a while," I yowled to the patrol as they talked about our new hunting grounds. The territory was actually quite big, and it had taken us half a day to go round. I was glad that I could rest; I don't think I could've walked much more, and we had to go to the Gathering!

We finally reached the bracken bush and found some moss in there to sit on. Once everyone was inside, we settled down to talk.

Just then, a twig snapped. What was there? All senses were on alert! It seemed to be coming from behind us, in a different part of the den. I carefully looked behind me, so as not to startle what lay there. Behind me, were……………cats?! There were a few cats there, and they looked frightened to death.

"Hello," Leafpool mewed softly.

"Don't hurt us…we're weak and hungry," a ginger-furred tom whimpered pitifully. I didn't think he liked to admit, but he looked as though he had no choice.

"We won't hurt you," Squirrelflight whispered softly, which was most unlike the fiery she-cat. "What are your names?"

"My name is Sun," mewed the ginger tom, "this is Bush," he flicked at a small brown tom with a torn ear, who smiled weakly, "this is Heather," a beautiful grey she-cat dipped her head in greeting, "and this Black," he pointed to the black cat in the corner, who flicked his tail nervously. "We have been travelling for moons, and in every place we have spent time in, we have been mercilessly taunted and beaten up and injured. We can't take any more; not since we lost Night nearly half a moon ago…"

Wait. Did he just say Night? He joined the Clan nearly half a moon ago…

"Did he have a white nose but a black body?" Leafpool asked inquisitively.

"Yes," Sun mewed in surprise. "Have you seen him?"

I nodded. "He is currently staying with us at our camp, getting better and learning to become a medicine cat."

"Did you kidnap him?" the five cats looked at us in sheer terror.

"No!" Leafpool looked a little unhappy that they thought that we would do such a thing. "He fell off of the gorge and dislocated his leg. I patched him and now he is training to become EarthClan's first medicine cat."

"Would you like to become part of EarthClan?" I asked the five loners who all had puzzled looks on their faces.

"What do we get out of it?" Black asked, not out of rudeness but rather out of curiosity.

"You will be protected by every Clan member, and you will fight with honour and dignity. You will be much safer in a Clan and you won't get in fights with other cats unless you fight with the might of the Clan behind you," Brambleclaw told them.

The loners huddled into a circle as they started to talk about the offer. Sun came back up to us and asked, "What are your names?"

I felt quite rude in not introducing us, so I did, "I am Crowstar, this is Leafpool," I gestured to my beautiful tabby mate. "Brambleclaw," I pointed to my trusty deputy. "Squirrelflight," the ginger-furry she-cat purred in greeting. "Stormfur," the grey furred warrior just nodded. "And Stonepaw," the grey apprentice jumped up and down in excitement.

Sun nodded and went back to the circle. After a few heartbeats he came back and said, "We accept your proposition, and we thank you for your offer. We would be honoured to be apprentices in your Clan."

I felt relieved. Even more cats! I thought! We walked briskly back to the camp where the rest of the Clan were eagerly awaiting our return. There would be a lot of news to come for them….

-x-

The newcomers had just been given their mentors. Heatherpaw got Squirrelflight, Sunpaw got Stormfur, Bushpaw got Ravenclaw and I got to mentor Blackpaw. The apprentice den had suddenly got filled up a lot quicker! But now it was time to set off for our first Gathering as EarthClan. I had decided to take Leafpool, Squirrelflight, Stormfur, Brook, Nightpaw, Ravenclaw, Moorpelt and Stonepaw to the Gathering tonight and our patrol was waiting at the entrance.

Once everybody was ready, we set off back towards the Clans' territory. The sun was setting in the sky and clouds streaked across were turned red by the rays of the still warm sunshine. By the time we reached the highest moor so far, we could see the lake. We were, I realised not that far at all from the Clan's territory. We picked up speed as we neared the Horseplace, dodging the clumsy horses as we passed through.

As we got nearer the island, we noticed that some cats were already there. I thought I recognised Firestar as we reached the tree-bridge. We didn't even manage to climb on the tree-bridge until yowls of surprise filled the tense air. We crossed without hitch and landed on the island. Now I looked closer, I noticed that WindClan was also there. Up on the Great Oak, Firestar and Onestar's jaws had dropped at the sight of us. The medicine cat gathering hadn't told them about us then…

"Crowfeather," Onestar said in shock. "We thought you were dead…"

"Leafpool!" Firestar jumped off of the branch at an amazing height and covered his daughter in licks. "I thought I'd never see you again…"

By this time, RiverClan and ShadowClan had joined in as well, equally as shocked.

"What are you doing here?" Firestar flicked his ears in thoughtfulness.

"I come as the new leader of EarthClan, with a few of my cats tonight," I flicked my tail at the small Clan I had formed. "My name is now Crowstar, as now I have the nine lives given to me by StarClan."

"But that's impossible," Blackstar was determined to crush us, "EarthClan isn't even a really Clan!"

"It is in the eyes of StarClan!" I mewed indignantly. "StarClan wished us to join you in the Gatherings, as we are now the fifth Clan in the forest."

"Why have you created a new Clan?" Onestar asked.

"We believe that we can live in peace in this new Clan, and we will continue to do anything to maintain this."

"How can we join?" an elder mewed at the back. It was Mousefur, the grouchy ThunderClan elder.

This had taken me aback. I didn't expect this. I was only going to introduce us and then leave at the end of the Gathering.

"Uh…" I began, not really knowing what to say…

"Yes, I would like to join…" Reedwhisker, a quiet RiverClan warrior mewed near the front.

"Well, how about tomorrow morning, meeting me and most of my Clan here on the island, and we'll see how many cats want to join…?" I mewed, this is unreal! I thought.

"This is a load of fox-dung!" Ashfur mewed from the front. "Meet me, anybody that wants to join my far superior Clan, at the same place tomorrow!" and with that he stalked back to presumably the ThunderClan camp.

"Please…everyone…think about what you are about to do…" Firestar was doing his best to control the situation, but failing miserably. Our night was over as I led my Clan off the island and back home.

Tomorrow was going to a crazy day…

That was Chapter 8! Nice and Long!! :) I'll update tomorrow, until then TTFN!

AND DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!!!!! :D XD :P

From Leopardstorm

(PS This is the longest chapter so far…)